Hiccups
by r-nica
Summary: -ONE-SHOT- Hiromi suffers from hiccups and the guys try to help her get rid of her problem. /KxH/


**DISCLAIMER: **Owning Kai belongs to my dreams while owning the money earned by the series (and the manga) belongs to my wish list. You can own the hiccups, though. I want nothing to do with them.

**(Setting: between 2002 and G-Revolution) I never thought I'd write something like this, even for a (considerably) Kai x Hiromi / Kai x Hilary fic. It just occurred to me when my family and I visited my uncles' graves and I was suffering from hiccups the entire day. It was so annoying, I tell you, especially after trying out more than two techniques to stop the problem _for good_. Anyway! Though I'm making the scientific stuff as accurate as possible, let's not take any of it here _too_ seriously, okay? This is just for entertainment. I speak from experience, and I have a book of remedies to supposedly help me. I'm no doctor and neither are the people in this one-shot, so let's cut the crap and go on with the fic. **

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

HICCUPS

* * *

How she had come to hate this morning.

Tachibana Hiromi had just finished her umpteenth glass of water—only to still find her body jerking again. The oh-so-familiar jerk had been tormenting her even as she was flipping through pages of the remedy book she had found in the Kinomiyas' bookshelf.

She never liked hiccups.

It began nearly an hour ago. She had been on her normal routine: monitoring the team's energy, cheering for the guys during practice, staring at Kai when he wasn't looking, keeping Takao's stubbornness in check, and nothing had gone wrong. But in the midst of rooting for Rei during his practice match with Max, her body had suddenly let out a hic that snagged everyone's attention. So she had excused herself, left the guys to finish their training and gotten herself a glass of water that would usually shut the hiccups up. It had always been her remedy and it had never failed her before. But her body wouldn't listen, not even when she had come to the point where her bladder was one step closer to bursting.

This was _so_ annoying.

"What happened to you, Hiromi?" In her preoccupation, Hiromi hadn't heard Takao come up behind her, followed by the rest of Team BBA. Training session must be over. "You never came back to practice." His hand swiftly came down to snatch her glass and brought it to his lips right away.

"Hey, that's my wa-_hic!_" The girl covered her mouth with her hands.

"You're suffering from hiccups?" Max asked, then peered over her shoulder. "Oh, so you were looking for Takao's book of home remedies while you were gone, am I right?"

"Book of remedies?" The Japanese teen scratched the back of his head. "I didn't know we even have one."

"Why am I not surprised," Hiromi commented in a dry tone, then jerked when another hiccup came. "Guys, this is so annoying! I never had hiccups that lasted this long before." Even as she spoke, she could feel Kai's gaze resting on her. Turning, she thought she could catch him to prove she wasn't just imagining it but all she saw was him staring at the floor, bending down, pausing for a while and then stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Maybe you'll get some ideas why if you know what it's all about." Kyouju scanned the first page under the _Hiccups_ section. "Let's see what it says here… It's a reflex resulting when the vagus nerve or one of its branches which run from the brain to the abdomen is irritated before the vagus tweaks the phrenic nerve leading to the diaphragm which spasms to cause the 'hic.'"

Everyone stared blankly at him.

"Never mind."

Rei took his chance of reading the rest of the pages. "There are several suggestions written here. _Eat more slowly. Avoid spicy foods. Don't overload the stomach. Drink only in moderation._ That's it?" He studied the page again. "I don't know if you're going to believe some of these as they seem to make no sense. Aside from drinking water, the rest seem to be just ways to avoid the hiccups."

"Well, what I need right now is how to _stop_ it," Hiromi pointed out. "I tried the water thing several times _hic!_ Already and it's not working."

"Then you better find the way to stop it now," Kai stated coolly. "If your hiccups continue for more than an hour or as many as twelve reliefless hours plus, you need to see a doctor."

"Hiwatari Kai stringing more than five words in one sentence?" His voice mystified, Takao rushed to the nearest window, gazing heavenward. "The sky must be falling!"

"Can it, Kinomiya."

"Going back to the problem at hand," Kyouju said, "this book says the techniques are believed to work on principles like overstimulating the vagus nerve with any of several different sensations. When one sensation is more overwhelming than another, the vagus nerve tells the brain that there's something more important to deal with, so the brain shuts off the hiccup response. But this book seems kind of outdated. If drinking water fails, then we must come up with something that won't."

Without a word, Kai turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

_He didn't even say anything else to help me! That is just so like Kai._ But despite her thoughts, Hiromi couldn't care about that right now. She wasn't supposed to expect anything from him in the first place.

Takao was digesting his Chinese friend's words. "So you're telling us that if something overwhelms this bogus nerve, then Hiromi's hiccups will finally stop, is that it?"

"In summary, yes."

"But as long as it doesn't happen, the world won't be endangered with constant nagging, right?"

Hiromi pinned him with a dark stare. "Don't. Push it _hic!_" Had she already mentioned that this was _so_ annoying?

How she really hated this morning.

* * *

"Hold my breath?"

Rei nodded in response. "It's a technique our elders make me try whenever I have a bout of hiccups. I just recall it now. Rai, Mao and I usually do it and it usually works."

"If you say so." Hiromi breathed in, holding it for a few seconds. Then she released the air and waited but her body jerked again. "It didn't work!"

"Maybe you didn't hold your breath long enough. Try it again."

Just as Hiromi took a deep breath, sounds of crashes were heard outside before she heard Takao's, "Reeeiii, heeeeeelp meeeeeee!" follow.

"I'll be right back," Rei said. "And whatever happens, don't breathe out yet until I come back."

"But how long will it take you before you return?" she was about to ask but the brunet quickly disappeared from her sight. Heaving a mental sigh, she decided to count the time of her friend's absence. _Five seconds… Twelve seconds… eighteen… twenty-five… thirty-something…_

Ah, screw waiting for Rei! Hiromi let it all out and waited. _Six seconds. Fourteen seconds._ "Hey, it stopped. I think it finally stopped! _Hic!_"

Then again, maybe not.

* * *

"Poor Hiromi-chan, to have only temporary relief from those hiccups since this morning," Max commented to himself that afternoon, adding the finishing touches to a mug of chocolate he had been preparing for some time now. He pondered for a while, then poured half of the content to the extra mug with him and left the dining room to store it in the refrigerator.

"Never knew I'd become so weary after a beyblade practice!" Takao dragged himself into the scene just a few moments later. His other teammates followed him. "I'm so thirsty, I can drink an entire swimming pool!"

"There's always the pond, Kinomiya." Normally a person like Hiwatari Kai could keep his cool but today even he was losing his maintenance over the unusual twitching of his features at the sound of his teammate's boisterous yelling.

"Ha ha," the said teammate shot back. "You talk like it doesn't matter to you but for all we know, you'd be desperate enough to drink from the toilet bowl."

"It's called _intensive practice_, Kinomiya. I thirst. You just happened to sweat the most."

"I do not! I just want to drink something because my throat itches like crazy!"

"Sure doesn't look like it." Rei sweatdropped, covering one pointed ear nearest to his auditory system's destruction that was Takao's off-the-charts screech. "Your shrieking doesn't agree with you."

"_I do not shriek!_"

"You do now."

"Thank you so much, Rei. If you'd only be a little more helpful here—Hey." Takao blinked, then blinked again. "A mug of something to drink! I'm saved!" And with a speed that not even Rei's catlike eyes could follow, one moment had Takao's fingers embracing the glass. "_Ittadakimasu!_"

"Hey, no fair, Takao!" Rei cried in protest but to no avail as the Japanese teen gulped down everything he could. "You're supposed to share that with your teammates!"

How a mug of chocolate could be shared by, let alone satiate three thirsty top beybladers was beyond anyone.

"Now the only thing left is to give it to—" Max was cut off, aghast at the scene that met him and he rushed over. "Hey, put that down! I made that for Hiromi-chan!"

Pausing from his drinking, the mug suspended in the air by a stubborn hand, Takao adopted a dismissive expression. "It's okay, Max. You can just make her another one. Besides, I'm a growing boy!" And then he promptly resumed activity.

"Takao, you're a _teenager_ already." The blond shook his head in wonder. "I guess it's a good thing I saved a back up of Hiromi-chan's cure in the fridge then."

"Must be some cure if Takao couldn't help drinking what's not his," Rei mused, amber gaze in its ever keen observation of the cure consumption transpiring before him. "What did you put in there anyway?"

"Well, I'm sure Takao wouldn't mind me having used all the sweet ingredients in his kitchen, would he?"

At this Takao accidentally sprayed out his drink all over Kai, who happened to be just across him.

Kai deliberately wiped the drips away from his eyes with his palm, and despite his calm front Dragoon's wielder could have sworn he just witnessed a nerve faintly twitching on his head. "I already showered."

And with that, the unfortunate drenched teen got up to clean himself and walked away, ignoring the culprit's shouts of apologies.

"Hey, did you hear me, Kai? I said I was sorry!" Takao tried again but to no avail, this time nearly huffing. "Jeez, the way he left the room, you'd think chocolate is some stain that couldn't be permanently washed off by water."

"Well, it _does_ have your saliva in it…" Rei stated in an almost thoughtful manner.

"You're not helping, Rei. _Again._"

"Sorry. All this dehydration must be getting into my coolness factor. Anyway, I'm going to raid the fridge for water. Want me to bring an extra pitcher of it, Max? Your cure could use some major dilution."

"What for?" Max's face broke into a grand smile, a little _too _grand for anyone's liking. "I know Hiromi-chan's going to _love_ it!"

"Max, the plan is to have Hiromi-san cured, not turn her into a diabetic."

"No way! I could never do such a thing to her."

"You sure didn't seem to have a problem with me." The look on Takao's face suggested how fast his tongue was _finally_ registering the intense sweetness now. "Rei, get that water fast. And Max, get that… _thing_ out of here!"

"But it took me five hours just to get the proportions right!"

"That deathtrap actually needs proportion to kill Hiromi?" the wielder of Dragoon muttered under his breath. "Although, it wouldn't be such a bad idea," he mused to himself, suddenly appearing delighted at the prospect of not being nagged anymore.

Rei shot him a look of warning. "Takao."

Dark eyes rolled. "Fine, fine. We won't end Hiromi's life." Then his features shifted into a wistful face. "And to think I'm letting such good opportunity pass…"

The catlike Chinese's attention shifted to Max. "Perhaps another mug of chocolate for Takao is in order."

"Nononono!" Takao's hands waved frantically. "Helping Hiromi is such a noble cause! The challenge to end all challenges! I'll help! Promise! Cross my heart! Hope to die! Give up all my trophies! Well, maybe I'll keep the trophies but I'll do anything, just don't let your chocolate go near me again! It never sank in to me how oversweet that… that… _poison_ is until you hinted so!"

"Ah, the power of suggestion and thirst is truly a thing of wonder," Rei remarked wisely before finally disappearing from the room. When he returned, a pitcher of cold water and several empty glasses were loaded on the tray in his hands. "The problem now is, can we get Hiromi-san to drink the other chocolate? If Takao couldn't take it despite his monstrous unfiltered appetite—"

"Hey, I resent that!"

"—then what are the chances that Hiromi-san would?"

"This will never work, I tell you, guys." Takao poured himself a glass of water, drinking like he'd never drank before. "And contrary to what you may think, I just remembered something that may while Rei was in the kitchen."

Max blinked. "Well, that was fast."

Takao nodded, then dropped his voice to a mysterious whisper. "It's a secret technique of the Kinomiya family passed down to each generation that I'm sure none of you in your wildest dreams had ever tried before."

"This is rather interesting." Even Rei bore curiosity in his catlike features. "So what is it?"

* * *

_Hic!_ Hiromi's auburn orbs were fixated on the mug before her. Max had claimed a few minutes ago that he had a solution for her, sending her right away from the practice area. "You sure this is really going to work?"

"Of course! I call it _The Mizuhara Try-It-To-Believe-It Believe-It-Or-Not Hiccup-Proof Tasty Chocolaty Specialty_!" Max beamed with the half-American, half-Japanese pride that only he could pull off. "Mama used to do this for me before she started working in America. Well, I couldn't remember the exact amounts of the ingredients but I balanced the proportions to adopt them as my own. You're going to be cured, Hiromi-chan!" His blue eyes widened with excitement. "You're _finally going to be cured!_"

"You make it sound like I have some terminal disease." Still, the unsuspecting brunette brought the mug to closer to her lips, a hiccup causing her hand to jerk for a moment. "Well, here goes…"

Takao watched this scene unfold with unusual interest. "Any last words?"

"What made you say that?" But the minute she tilted the mug to let the cold fluid flow into her mouth, she could feel her face turn into an interesting shade of gray and immediately saw her life passing before her eyes. And to think she experienced only _two drops _of the entire drink! Quickly she reached for the nearest glass of water (which unknown to her Rei had strategically situated beforehand) to save herself, nearly gasping. "Are you planning to kill me! What the hell did you put in there!"

Still beaming with pride, the freckled teen pulled out a loooooooong list of ingredients from somewhere in the realms of his pocket. "Let's see, I only included,

_¼ cup of white sugar_

_5 tablespoons of caramel_

_5 pieces of melted Chips Ahoy!_

_½ cup of syrup_

_8 full tablespoons of honey_

_3.5 grams of brown sugar_

_7 pieces of—_"

"That's enough!"

"But I hardly even reached eight percent!"

"Let me have a look at that!" Hiromi snatched the list and regretted doing so, each succeeding item worse than the last draining her of energy. "Forget I even tried." Never had she been so… _traumatized_ in her entire life.

"I thought this was supposed to be a chocolate recipe, so where's the chocolate ingredient?" Rei inspected the twenty-plus inch long paper, scanning the contents for himself until he got to the bottom part. "Oh…"

"Come on, Hiromi-chan!" True to his cheerful nature, Max still had a, well, cheerful face on, seeming to be unaware how he almost lost a dear friend to death on the spot. "You can do it!"

"Where do you get all that cheerfulness from," Hiromi muttered under her breath. "I don't see how this… _thing_ is going to completely stop my hiccups." Odd, she hadn't had a hiccup since before she had a "sip." Did it work?

"Well, it's about overloading the mouth with the sweet sensation or something like that. Maybe the overwhelm theory again?"

"Maybe," she said aloud. "But Max, I just can't taste it again, let alone drink it! It hardly even tastes like chocolate like it's supposed to."

"But it's too early for you to give up! And you know what they say: Try and try until you die!"

"Well, that explains what's been going on the entire day," the girl muttered once more to herself. "What would I give to _hic_." Crap. She felt like banging her head on something hard, preferably the table that was within her access at the moment.

And so she did.

Rei offered a comforting pat on the class president's shoulder. "Don't worry, Hiromi-san. I'm sure we'll be able to come up with something."

Hiromi kept on banging her head in despair. "Why me?" she groaned again and again. The raven-haired teen's hand shot above the table before her head could accept an unwanted concussion from it, and the bout of hiccups still proceeded.

A frown formed its way on Max's face. "The drink… So it's really _that_ bad?"

"_Yes,_" Takao and Hiromi answered at the same time.

Suddenly the blond looked crushed, the world weighing down on his shoulders. Like for five seconds.

"You know, Hiromi-san, why don't you stick to the water treatment for now?" Rei suggested once, Hiromi noticed, he was sure that she ceased hitting herself into a coma. "It may just work again."

"Maybe. _Hic!_ If I could ignore the fact that I'm so fed up with the taste of something so tasteless!"

"That's too bad. You know, the sweets _could_ work. But as Max said, we don't have any of it now anymore."

"Actually, I didn't mean to say I used _everything_ there," Max amended. "There's still a pack of powdered chocolate drink and some pieces of actual chocolate left. But I was thinking of saving them for a possible midnight snack." Then his face brightened. "Hey, you know, Hiromi-chan, I can make another drink for you if you want—"

"NO!" Hiromi cried out immediately. "I mean, no. Thanks but it's not necessary." Suddenly the idea of drinking another glass of water was beyond appealing. "Maybe this"—she was interrupted by another hiccup—"will work again." _How long do I have to keep on drinking water anyway?_ she wondered, absentmindedly drinking from her glass. _Minutes? Hours? Days? Forever? At this point I'll be able to survive in the Sahara Desert for years—_

"_Hiromi!_"

Without warning, a pair of hands clutched down on her shoulders, and her body jerked, the water caught in her throat that she choked.

"Ha! I knew it would work!" Takao crowed in triumph while the poor girl continued coughing with Rei aiding her. "I, Kinomiya Takao, am a genius!"

Max just stared, confused. "_That's_ the secret technique?"

"Uh huh!"

"I don't get it."

"Well, whenever I have hiccups and the water treatment doesn't work, Jiichan would attack me with his bamboo sword out of nowhere to surprise me, theoretically anyway, and scare the living daylights out of me! And the weird part is, it actually works!"

"Let me guess," Rei tried. "It overwhelms the vagus nerve?"

"Well… more or less… I guess. But hey! At least Hiromi was lucky I didn't use my bamboo sword on her—Eeep!" He could no longer continue when he came face to face with two glowing, reddish-brown orbs. "H-Hiromi, hey there," he greeted weakly. "You sure are looking fine today…"

"Fine, huh?" she gritted. "What _hic!_ Is that supposed to mean?"

"You're still having the hiccups?" The navy-haired lad let out a squeak. "But aren't you supposed to be scared?"

"Scared? _Scared? _Ohhh noooo, Takao, how could I be scared when I was so busy _choking to death!_" She grabbed the nearest bamboo sword, wielding it in front of her. "I'll _show you how it's like to be scared!_" And with the precision of a master swordsman, which was odd considering she never had kendo classes before in her entire life…

The next scene would be left to the colorful imagination of the reader.

From the door, Kyouju ambled over to Max and Rei's side. "Hey guys. How's Hiromi-san doing?"

Rei covered Kyouju's eyes in response. It was even a miracle how his hand found the bespectacled boy's eyes. It was even a mystery if Kyouju really did have eyes to begin with but that's not important right now. "Scenes like these shouldn't be viewed by minors."

"Yeah, Rei." Max hand shielded Rei's golden orbs while his own blue ones were watching with utmost fixated fascination and interest. "The violence is too much to handle for youngsters." For a while he shook his head in mock disappointment. "Really, the things watched by kids these days…"

"You don't need to insult my height," Kyouju said to Rei, eyes still covered by the latter's hand though in fact it was more like Rei was covering a thick mass of bangs instead. " I'm just the same age as any of you." He waited for several moments to pass before asking, "So is it over?"

Takao's next bloodcurdling scream was the only answer he needed.

"Oh no, Takao's dead!" Max gasped in despair when Hiromi sent the poor Japanese to the floor with a final strike, and he rushed over to his fallen teammate's side. "Takao, are you all right? Where does the sun rise? What's the scientific name of broccoli? What color are your boxers? What's the longest word?" He frantically shook his friend's shoulders. "Speak to me, Takao! Speak to me!"

"In the east, _Brassica oleracea_, rusty orange with furry pink bunnies, and _pneumonoultramicroscopic-silicovolcanoconiosis_," Takao managed to say, bruised, battered and just plain pathetic.

Kyouju solemnly nodded in conclusion at the given answers. "Yup, he's injured all right."

Max unceremoniously dropped Takao to the floor, a look of contemplation gracing his face. "I thought it was _ supercalifragilistic-expialidocious_ like in one of those kiddie songs."

"I thought it was _Llanfairpwll-gwyngyllgogerychwyrn-drobwllllantysiliogogogoch_."

Everyone turned to stare at Rei.

"What?" the Chinese blader asked in defense. "It's a village in Wales."

Everyone continued to stare.

"What? I've been there!"

"Well, I thought Takao was going to say s_mile_s." Suddenly Hiromi let out another hiccup, groaning once more."I hate this. Does anyone else have any more ideas?"

All she received was a collective sigh.

* * *

The day carried on with bouts of hiccups, much to Hiromi's growing annoyance. True, periods of physical peace were brought by her continuous consumption of water from time to time but only took effect temporarily. The afternoon wasn't such a complete loss, though. She had gained the support and help of her friends, except a certain chilly, silent dual-haired emotionless anti-social being who shall remain nameless. Where he had gone off to, nobody knew, and the girl was damning herself for thoughts that this certain person whom she had a rather keen interest in would really think she was worth his help.

She hated it but she was getting desperate to put an end to this ridiculous problem of hers. Desperate enough to be open to seemingly illogical methods in the book like pulling at one's tongue, sticking one's finger in the ears and such. And Hiromi had come to the point that she was seriously considering the latter but then had decided against it for simple fear of impaling her hearing at worst.

And now, it all ended to a sleepless night, topped with hiccups, of course. In fact, Hiromi was deprived of even yawning properly. So without much of a choice, she got up, nearly tripped over Takao's impeding foot on her way out of the dark sleeping quarters, and headed straight to the kitchen to fix herself… something.

Surprise took her, however, when she saw the lights of the room for food preparation were on. _Who_ hic! _Who could still be up at a time like this?_ Her hand reached to pull the door open. _Maybe it's Takao, strangely having gone ahead of me, raiding the refrigerator. Typical. That guy stops at nothing when it comes to food unlike—_ "_Kai?_"

Kai paused to look at her, the mug of chocolate in his grasp just a few centimeters away from his lips.

Now this Hiromi wasn't expecting. After another hiccup, she spoke. "Kai, why are you still up at this hour?"

His wine eyes bore right through hers. "And you. Why are you still awake?" he asked back in a flat tone.

"Hey, I asked you first."

But all he did was drink from his mug, leaving no answers for her satisfaction.

_Unbelievable._ Hiromi planted her hands on her hips, shooting him a hard stare. _I gave him the question first, and he expects me to answer his without answering mine._ And yet, at that precise moment, with the way his toned back was lazily leaning against the kitchen wall, with the way the skin of his neck devoid of the usual white scarf moved smoothly in response to the liquid sliding down his throat, he made a thing as simple as drinking so sexy. Heat crept up on her cheeks.

Kai stared intently back at her, and the girl realized she had been staring at him a little bit _too_ long. And unfortunately got caught for it.

"Uh, I can't sleep," she tried covering up as though to answer what he asked her before. "I blame the hiccups for that." And right on cue, a sudden hiccup jerked her. "You know, I think you may be right about me seeing a doctor soon. I tried everything, every technique but nothing worked."

Kai just smirked. "Kinomiya and the others just couldn't do them right."

"And I suppose you can?" she shot back, watching him finish what remained of his drink as the rest of her words were punctuated by hiccups. "Who are you to talk? You even barely did as much as lift a finger to help me. I mean, here I am, hiccuping myself to death and what have you been doing? Nothing aside from striking your I'm-Hiwatari-Kai-and-any-time-that-my-back-is-not-against-the-wall-kills-my-supreme-coolness pose while the rest of the other guys do everything to put an end to this." She shook her head, turning to walk away. "Nooooo, not Hiwatari Ka—"

A strong hand suddenly seized her by the waist that made her take a sharp intake of breath and she barely had the moment to release it when a mouth dove into hers, her frame pulled so close to his own. Shock took over her that she couldn't do anything as he took advantage, his tongue entering her cavern to coat everything he could with rich sweetness that filled Hiromi's senses in an instant. Yet, even as both of them knew she needed to release her air and breathe in fresh oxygen right now, instead Kai roughened his action in defiance as though he didn't want to stop. As though he couldn't summon the strength to stop.

Yes, she was most definitely shocked at his action.

Suddenly he pulled away a bit for a long, tense pause, leaving her catching her breath. Stunned and dazed, she was gasping for air that only served to fan Kai's hovering face just a few inches away. When her hazy mind cleared just enough, she expected the hiccups to follow.

But none came.

"Finally you stopped."

His voice resounded so low that it made Hiromi look up. Up close, Kai's gaze was most penetrating, something she could feel even when it traveled to her mouth. Suddenly conscious of it, she realized how moist it was, how sweet it was to her tongue. Even the latter was sweet as she sensed. _Rich chocolate, _she realized, and even through her breathless state she had the instant knowledge that she had fallen for his ploy. "Kai…"

The beyblader moved next to her ear, his breath fanning it for a while before she heard his husky voice. "Any time you have another bout, you'll never know when I'll cure you." And then he walked back to their sleeping quarters like nothing happened, leaving her alone in the kitchen.

For a while, Hiromi was frozen in place. Finally everything started sinking in. Kai, _the_ Hiwatari Kai, had kissed her.

At the corner of her eye she caught sight of something, noticing for the first time another mug of chocolate drink right next to Kai's empty one. That detail made her wonder, so she went over to check it out, only to find a detached piece of paper pinned underneath. Her eyes carefully read the highlighted headings before their respective paragraphs of explanation.

_Hold your breath. _

_Busy the nerve endings of the tongue with sweets. _

_Have someone surprise you._

Wait a minute. _Weren't these the techniques Rei, Max and Takao made me try out? _And the paper in her hand bore a very similar quality to the pages of the book of remedies she had consulted earlier that day… _How come Kai has this with him and left it here?_ A seemingly unimportant scene this morning froze in her memory. The only explanation she could come up with was that this detached page from the book had fallen sometime when she was searching for other effective solutions to her problem and no one even realized it was missing. But if Kai had kept it… The way he had grabbed her, the way he had given her that completely unexpected kiss… It all came back to her.

What the other guys couldn't do, Kai had done them all at the same time.

Had done them to her. And unlike before, the hiccups had finally stopped for good.

And she noted that the third remedy was underlined by a pencil. _Could it be Kai's first choice?_ Then her attention back on the remaining mug, she took a sip first, recognizing that familiar tinge. _Don't tell me he also prepared me this..._ Then as she slowly drank from it, she could feel the sensation of Kai's lips working on hers as though it was occurring right now. Melting pieces of chocolate floated their way to her mouth along with the delicious brown stream. Yes, she could recognize that dominating rich taste. _Kisses by Hershey's._ _Mmmm…_ Her eyes closing, the phantom pressure of his mouth from her memory was becoming real in her imagination. She most definitely hadn't counted on his cure to have lasting effects on her.

_I don't know what to say, Kai._ Hiromi paused from her activity, reddish-brown orbs finally opening as her face broke into a smile.

_Except that you should have done it sooner. _

_:Owari:_

* * *

**I'm so sorry for any errors. As much as I love editing for six more times, my eyes can't handle it anymore. I'm _so_ knocked out.**

**Edit: The long words given by Takao, Max and Rei really don't have hyphens. I just added them because for some strange reason (again), fanfiction . net does not support such long words and they refused to appear.**

**Thank you for reading, and please leave some feedback or a review. Thanks a bunch! **


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